Exclusive: ‘No Suicide’ Ruled In Grooveshark Founder’s Death

Despite incredibly suspicious circumstances, the death of Grooveshark co-founder Josh Greenberg has been ruled a ‘no suicide’ by coroners. In an autopsy report leaked Tuesday afternoon to Digital Music News, Greenberg’s abrupt death was mysteriously identified as ‘Undetermined,’ with no abnormal concentrations of toxins or other unusual post-mortem conditions found.

According to official autopsy statistics, less than 5% of deaths carry this mysterious non-designation, with a vast majority of deaths linked to one or multiple known causes. In situations involving otherwise-healthy twenty-somethings, the causes of death are typically violent, extreme, or suicidal.

Indeed, in most of these cases involving younger people, life is yanked by firearm assaults, automobile accidents, knife wounds, drug overdoses, or tragic suicides.

Then, there’s the strange timing of it all. Greenberg was found dead on July 20th of this year, less than three months after Grooveshark was brutally forced out of existence by a US federal court ruling. Grooveshark and its parent, Escape Media, battled for years against an expensive and fierce major label legal assault that was once described as ‘legal jihad’. Escape, alongside law firm Rosenberg & Giger, was ultimately unable to defend against massive copyright liability charges.

Soon after the ruling, Grooveshark was forced offline, with a shameful apology note replacing a once-sleek, highly-trafficked interface. Parent company Escape Media was ultimately dissolved, with Greenberg, co-founder Sam Tarantino, and other principles also losing their trademarks and other intellectual capital.

Greenberg, an otherwise healthy 28-year-old, was found dead by his girlfriend soon thereafter, with Gainesville cops reporting ‘no evidence of suicide’. Greenberg’s mother also rushed to her son’s defense, noting that the once-proud entrepreneur had no addictions or high-risk habits.

“No potentially lethal toxin concentration identified…”

That was corroborated by the University of Florida Pathology Laboratories, as well as toxicology findings from NMS Labs in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. In the end, the only toxic substances floating in Greenberg’s slightly-decomposed body were cannabinoids and various THC compounds, hardly to stuff of desperate suicide. “No potentially lethal toxin concentration identified,” the report concluded.

Paul Resnikoff, aka Lewis Carroll. Because we do seem to have fallen through the Looking Glass here.

‘Grooveshark was brutally forced out of existence by a US federal court ruling. Grooveshark and its parent, Escape Media, battled for years against an expensive and fierce major label legal assault that was once described as ‘legal jihad’.’

Grooveshark’s business model was based on piracy. Short of calling themselves – oh, I don’t know, something like ‘The Pirate Bay’ – it couldn’t be any plainer.

The major labels sued Grooveshark because only the major labels could afford the costs of legal action, especially in the USA, where (unlike in most other jurisdictions) the injured party in a civil case seldom recovers its costs. But it was not just the major labels who detested Grooveshark. Grooveshark was an equal opportunities thief: it stole from the rich and poor alike. Just look up the experiences of Robert Fripp and Zoe Keating – entirely independent artists – in trying to remove their work from Grooveshark. What finally did for Grooveshark was the sheer stupidity of its founders in leaving too much evidence open to disclosure.

I like watching your blog slowly crumble into obscurity and irrelevance, littered with ads and clickbait. I’m glad somebody “leaked” you this “exclusive” report from the coroner’s office, as it’s probably one of the last you’ll have. The caliber of your reporting has declined at the same pace as Grooveshark’s demise. Now that you’ve run out of TMZ-style breaking news to report and the witch hunt is over, you’re left covering… what? Weird reports from the coroner’s office, rehashing the early death of a person – yes, depraved commenters celebrating (?) his death, believe it or not this was a human being. Where’s the actual breaking news, like Spotify’s $150M class action lawsuit? Unsurprisingly, you’ll be one of the last outlets to cover it.